Apocalypse Archives: Dexter Fletcher

The Elephant Man

(David Lynch, 1980)‘It’s a great film about London at a particular time, and there’s something so deeply emotionally impacting about it. I’d have to have it in there, irrespective of my own appearance in it! There’s some great people in it: Wendy Hiller and John Gielgud, John Hurt and Freddie Jones, and I’m lucky that I’ve got some memories that I can attach to it.’

Semi-Pro

(Kent Alterman, 2008)‘It makes me laugh, and I think that would be important – you need to have a laugh. The scene where they’re sitting round the poker table and one guy calls Will Arnett a ‘jive turkey’ is particularly funny – he goes totally serious and says, “Did you just call me a jive turkey?” I love all of that stuff.’

Once Upon a Time in the West

(Sergio Leone, 1968)‘It’s got one of the best openings of any film. Film is storytelling with pictures and not so much words, and [Leone] is brilliantly powerful in terms of telling a story with visuals. When you see Henry Fonda’s face change when someone calls him by his name – the power of that close-up; you can see what film can really do and what great film acting is. For me that’s something really special.’

Black Cat, White Cat

(Emir Kusturica, 1998)‘It’s so full of life and vibrancy. These people are real and crazy and funny and alive: the girl is absolutely beautiful and you want to know her, and the old man with the band tied to a tree is brilliant, and a pig in a car, it’s inspired! It doesn’t matter to me that I don’t understand what they’re talking about, it’s a film I can sit and watch again and again.’

Hard Eight

(Paul Thomas Anderson, 1996)‘I like all of his films, but for some reason I love this one. It’s the simplicity of it, and it’s Philip Baker Hall acting with heart and purpose. Samuel L [Jackson] is brilliant in it, and Gwyneth Paltrow is fantastic, massively underrated. It was his first film I watched after Boogie Nights that I was like, "This is really fucking good filmmaking"; so accomplished and steady.’

Dexter Fletcher’s directorial debut Wild Bill is out in cinemas now.

The Elephant Man Movie Trailer

Once Upon a Time in The West Trailer

Jive Turkey - Semi Pro

Black Cat, White Cat Movie Trailers Preview NYTimes com

HARD EIGHT - Trailer ( 1996 )

Teenage brothers Dean (Poulter) and Jimmy (Williams) live alone in a crummy East London flat, but when their ex-con father Bill (Creed-Miles) returns to their lives, tension hits. The gangster milieu may be over-familiar, but writer/director Fletcher and co-writer King tell their story with unexpected maturity, very funny…